LOVELAND HERALD
Your Community Press newspaper serving Loveland, Miami Township and other Northeast Cincinnati neighborhoods
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2021 | BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
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A rock star for
planet Earth
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Chris Varias | Special to Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY NETWORK
fter Kirsten Bladh moved to Los Angeles a couple years ago, she was still a full-on rock and roller, working at a coff ee shop there, between tours with her Cincinnati band, Leggy. h She’s now coming out the other end of the pandemic with a straight job, helping to enact environmental policy changes in the Loveland native’s adopted home state and leaving some uncertainty as to her future in rock.
Kirsten Bladh. PROVIDED
Loveland-native rocker of Leggy fame now working to protecting the environment in California
Bladh started Leggy with her Ursuline Academy classmate Véronique Allaer in 2013. It has been one of the most successful Cincinnati punk bands since that time, taking three trips to the United Kingdom, including a sold-out 28-date run supporting Shonen Knife in 2016. The band – Bladh on bass, Allaer on vocals and guitar and Chris Campbell on drums – has released an album and three EPs and has played the South By Southwest festival fi ve times. The plan was more of the same. Bladh would fl y from L.A. and hop on a tour. Last year, a week before the nationwide shutdown, she
was in Chicago cutting tracks for what will be the next Leggy release. “A friend in L.A. was like, ‘Hey, we have a room open in our house, I don’t know if you want to come sublet for a while,’ and it was such a really good price and it had an incredible view, just probably the nicest house I’ll ever have lived in,” Bladh says, looking back on moving west. “I defi nitely thought it would be short term. My plan was to be here for six months. (She and her bandmates) had all talked See ROCKER, Page 2A
Leggy (from left to right): Veronique Allaer, Chris Campbell, Kirsten Bladh. NIKKI NESBIT
Cincinnatian Aaron Dessner takes home Grammy with Taylor Swift Sarah Brookbank Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Taylor Swift, from left, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner accept the award for album of the year for “Folklore” at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Sunday, March 14, 2021. CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
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Cincinnatian Aaron Dessner won a Grammy March 14 with Taylor Swift for her album “Folklore.” This is the second Grammy for Dessner, who is as a member of The National. In 2017, “Sleep Well Beast” from The National took home Best Alternative Music Album. He was nominated in 2013 for “Trouble Will Find Me” for Best Alternative Music Album and in 2020 for “Cardigan” for Song of the Year. Dessner also co-produced Swift’s album “Evermore.” The National is featured on the song “Coney Island” off “Evermore.” Dessner and co-producer Jack Anto-
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noff performed on stage with Swift March 14, USA TODAY reported. Swift made history Sunday at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards by winning one of the night’s highest honors for the third time with her surprise quarantine album “Folklore,” a wistful and understated return to form after the boldface-pop grab bags of 2019’s “Lover” and 2017’s “Reputation,” USA TODAY reported. Dessner is a 1994 graduate of Cincinnati Country Day, school offi cials said in a statement. Another graduate of the school is celebrating after a win from John Legend’s R&B album “Bigger Love,” school offi cials said. Kellen Pomeranz, class of 2007, contributed to the song “Conversations in the Dark” featured on the Grammy-winning album.
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